Frances Bean Cobain Biography

Visual Artist (1992–)

Model Frances Bean Cobain is the only daughter of guitarist Kurt Cobain and singer Courtney Love.

Who Is Frances Bean Cobain?

Frances Bean Cobain was born on August 18, 1992, in Los Angeles, California to musicians Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love. Her parents’ rumored drug use threw her immediately into the spotlight. In 1994, her father committed suicide and her mom was arrested for drug use in 2003. Frances has modeled and performed, but her family life remains rocky. In 2009, she placed a restraining order against her mother.

Early Life

Model and singer Frances Bean Cobain was born on August 18, 1992, in Los Angeles, California. Daughter of the late singer and guitarist Kurt Cobain from Nirvana and singer and actress Courtney Love, Frances Bean Cobain has spent much of her young life in the spotlight because of her parents.

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Cobain was making headlines soon after she was born. Since both of her parents had struggled with drugs over the years, there was a lot of speculation about Frances's health. One tabloid newspaper went so far as to run a story titled "Rock Star's Baby is Born a Junkie." Contrary to such reports, Frances Bean Cobain was a healthy, normal baby with the same blue eyes as her father.

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Battle for Custody

Two days after her birth, her parents were visited in the hospital by a social worker from the Los Angeles County Department of Children's Services. The investigation had been launched after a profile about Courtney Love came out in Vanity Fair magazine. In the interview, Love admitted to doing drugs while pregnant. The article also seemed to imply that the couple was still using drugs. As a result, the department of children's services sought to have Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love declared unfit parents, according to Heavier than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain by Charles R. Cross.

After a lengthy legal battle, Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love were able to regain custody of their daughter. They employed several nannies over the next two years to help them care for her. Both of her parents, unfortunately, were still battling their drug problems during this time. In March 1994, Frances went to visit her father at a rehabilitation center in Los Angeles with her nanny, according to Cross. This may have been the last time she saw her father.

Kurt Cobain's Suicide

Leaving rehab, Kurt Cobain eventually returned to Seattle and killed himself at the family's home on April 5, 1994. Frances was not even two years old by this time. After her father's death, Frances developed a close relationship with her paternal grandmother, Wendy O'Connor. She went on to tell Harper's Bazaar that O'Connor is "the most constant thing I've ever had."

Cobain was placed in her grandmother's care for a time after her mother's drug-related arrest in October 2003. Hours after her arrest, Love overdosed on painkillers. During the overdose, Cobain was present and made her mother some tea while they waited for an ambulance to take Love to the hospital, according to People magazine.

In the resulting custody battle, Cobain spent some time in the care of her nanny and family members while Love was allowed regular visits with her daughter. Love regained custody of Cobain in 2005. Later that year, Cobain gave her first interview to the press, which appeared in Teen Vogue. She said that "I don't want to be titled as Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain's daughter. I want to be thought of as Frances Cobain."

Creating Her Own Identity

Cobain was featured in a photo spread for the March 2008 issue of Harper’s Bazaar. She modeled a series of outfits based on characters from popular musicals, such as Evita, Grease and Beauty and the Beast. In the accompanying article, Cobain discussed how she liked to perform in musicals, but was initially apprehensive about it. "The first time I'd ever been onstage, singing by myself, I was shaking," she explained. Cobain also expressed an interest in pursuing the visual arts including fashion and photography. She also interned at the rock music publication Rolling Stone.

Cobain is a little nonplussed by all of the media attention she has received as well as the number of Web pages devoted to her online. "These people are fascinated by me, but I haven’t done anything yet... People need to wait until I've done something valid with my life," she told Harper's Bazaar.

In 2009, Wendy O'Connor, Kurt Cobain's mother and Kimberly Dawn Cobain, Kurt's sister were granted temporary guardianship of Frances. A restraining order was also placed against Courtney Love prohibiting her from contact with her daughter.

Cobain wed musician Isaiah Silva on June 29, 2014, but filed for divorce from him in March 2016. The divorce was finally settled in May 2018. In the settlement, Cobain had to forfeit the guitar that her dad, Kurt Cobain, famously played in his MTV Unplugged performance in November 1993, just five months before he committed suicide. Silva claimed she gave him the guitar, that is worth million of dollars, as a gift.

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